Sport and Physical Education

The sport and physical culture development measures in Mariupol are taken on the basis of the Programme approved for a three year period by the decision of municipal council. The main targets of the Programme are the development of mass physical culture and sports among all the layers of society, the elite sport support, the sport infrastructure preserving and keeping. Nowadays there are 6 stadiums, 4 swimming pools, 5 sports palaces, a field-and-track training ground, an ice stadium, 107 gyms, 18 football fields, 11 tennis-courts, 257 sports grounds in the city. Among them a unique building – a roofed sport complex “Illych”, in which there is a football field with stands for 7 thousand spectators, special halls for sport games (basketball, volleyball, tennis). In winter pupils go in for boxing, freestyle wrestling, Tae Kwon Do, table tennis, body-building and fitness at the children`s sport school of the “Illych” football club. The stadiums are situated in all the districts of the city, they are available for citizens, who want to go in for physical culture and sports, they have natural and artificial herbage that gives possibility to hold games and trainings at any season.

Sports palaces specialize not only in particular kinds of sports (basketball, volleyball, Greco-Roman wrestling, tennis), but also have additional halls for athletics. The developed football infrastructure made it possible for the city to hold successfully the European junior championship in 2009 – a sport event that had never taken place in Mariupol before. For this purpose the hotels, transport, public catering and public service centres, medical establishments were prepared, cultural tourist service and leisure activities for the guests of the city were organized, the personnel and volunteers were ready.

In general the preparations of Mariupol for the European Championship was highly appreciated by the UEFA leaders, moreover, for the record number of spectators at championship games the city received a 75 thousand Euro bonus for the mass football development. Mariupol masters of sports are well known far beyond the Azov region and Ukraine.

Mariupol citizens are proud of these sportsmen: the Olympic champion of Moscow Olympiad (1980) - a swimmer Alexandr Sidorenko, the first Olympic champion of independent Ukraine - a Greco-Roman style wrestler Vyacheslav Oleynik (Atlanta, 1996), the bronze medalist of the Olympiad in Atlanta (1996) – a boxer Oleg Kiruhin, a Greco-Roman style wrestler David Soldadze, who took the second place at the Olympiad – 2000 in Sydney. For many years one of the European professional boxing leaders has been a multiple intercontinental champion Alexandr Gurov. The “Illych” sports club water polo players are the eternal leaders of Ukrainian water polo and the base team of the national team of Ukraine.

Besides, Mariupol is present at the super league of Ukrainian championship in basketball, where the team «Azovmash» is the champion of Ukraine, more than once it was properly presented at the European Cup championships. At the Ukranian football championship Premier League the city is represented by “Illych” club, that has its own children`s sport school, takes successful measures in the development of children`s football

Greco-Roman style wrestling in Mariupol has been developing on everlasting traditions, its centre is the sport club “Azovmash”. The wrestlers of “Azovmash” became the champions and prizewinner of the Olympic games, European and World championships. Among them the Olympic champion Vyacheslav Oleynik, the Olympic games silver prizewinner David Soldadze, the World`s champion Rustam Adzhy, the champion of Europe Grigoriy Komyshenko. Annualy a range of traditional international competitions, at which the younger generation of wrestlers undergoes checks in fighting are held in the city.

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The list of the Donetsk region candidates to participateХХХ Summer Olympic games 2012 in London includes 32 Mariupol sportsmen in freestyle and Greko-Roman style wrestling, yachting sport, weightlifting and track and field athletics, judo, swimming, boxing, shooting sports, diving, water polo, boating and canoeing.

The weightiest success in 2009 was gained by weightlifters Artem Udachin and Julia Kalina, who became the prizewinners of European an World championship, and by sportsmen with hearing disorder, track and field athletes Maria Golovko and Rimma Filimoshkina, who won medals at Deaflympic games in Taiwan. More than 16 thousand people in the city go in for participant sports, about 8 thousand of them — at 16 children-juniors sport schools. 276 stuff trainers in different kinds of sports work at sport organizations.

30 specialized football, basketball, freestyle and Greek-Roman style wrestling classrooms, where young sportsmen are provided with all the facilities